Denial: Ain't Just A River
by sakunade
Summary: Sokka points out the obvious, and for some reason, Katara denies it. So he takes it upon himself to show her just how blind she's been to it all. He's her Big Brother you know, so he has every right. [S3!Kataang]


_'Cause Sokka would TOTALLY be all Big Brother and try to make his sister realize her own feelings. I guess this is my own speculation on that one scene from the Comic Con trailer where Katara yells at somebody: "I will never, EVER, turn my back on people who need me." Some people say it's Zuko, and others say it's Aang. Ah, well. Season 3 is going to be totally awesome, I know that much._

* * *

"You love him, don't you?"

Katara gazed up and noticed her brother leaning his back against the wall. She was sitting on the ground, her knees huddled close to her chest and her arms wrapped around it holding them together. A couple of tears were noticeable on her cheeks, and wet dots where she had cried were noticeable on her skirt.

She wiped away whatever remaining traces of tears she had left on her face before responding to her brother. "What are you talking about, Sokka?"

She heard him exasperate deeply. "Oh _c'mon_, Katara! It's _painfully_ obvious."

"Obvious? What's obvious...?"

He kneeled in front of his little sister and looked at her straight. His eyebrows arched and his blue eyes gazing into hers with that oh-so regular Sokka look that she was accustomed to. "You're in love with Aang, aren't you?"

Her heart began to skip beats faster than they have before. She didn't understand. What was Sokka talking about? She was in love with Aang...? "I…I do love him, Sokka. I care a lot about him. I'm always worried about him and I always try to look out for him even though he doesn't ask me too, I just can't help it I-"

He shook his head. "No. No, no, no. I meant the other kind of love. You _love_ him."

She didn't know why but she was in shock. She gasped, and it was an audible gasp loud enough that Sokka had to clean his ears from the noise. She paused for a second; speechless at the thought of having deep feelings for Aang...the Avatar...the same goofy kid she met back in the South Pole...

"Oh, don't tell me you're in denial now Katara."

She didn't know how to react, especially in front of her brother. It was weird and awkward and very uncomfortable talking about the prospect of her feelings for someone. Not to mention that the person whom said feelings were being directed towards was someone her brother knew very well, and she knows how her brother can be.

She soothed the groaning pain in her temples with her fingertips before standing up. She looked back at Sokka, who was still kneeling on the ground when she looked back but had quickly risen as soon as she spoke: "It's...none of your business."

"Are you KIDDING me?! Of course it's my business Katara! I'm your brother!" He approached her with such ferocity that could only be explained in Big Brother terms. "Anything that deals with my little sister and potential love interests are my business!"

For some reason, that really ticked her off. She approached him, arms wrapped around her chest and wrinkled nose up in the air. "Since when?!"

He leaned forward, _his_ arms now crossed against his chest and wrinkled nose up in the air. "Since the moment we left home!"

The two siblings stared at each other for what must've been a good two minutes or so before both backed down their tempers. Katara allowed her arms to let loose and fall to her sides. She stared into nothingness for a long time, trying to find herself lost in her own thoughts in hopes of finding some answer to what her brother was questioning her on.

She'd never seen Aang that way before. Earlier, they had a big argument. She didn't want him to go somewhere on his own, she wanted to follow him, to be with him every step of the way but he wouldn't allow it. For the first time in their journey, he defied her, and with such bitterness in his voice that she couldn't take it anymore.

_"I will never, EVER turn my back on people who need me...!"_

And then she left the deck of the ship, just like that, and on her way down to the bunks she found herself crying and sobbing loudly. She hid in her room for awhile, in hopes to calm her nerves a bit, and then finally retreated to the halls where she was sitting in her own melancholy before her brother interrupted them.

"Just admit it already."

"Admit what?!" she was just calming down! Leave it to her brother to bring back that animosity again.

"That you love Aang." he teased.

No sooner than he had suggested, Sokka found himself face down on the ground via a significant amount of water bending that trashed him face forward. He should have known not to mess with her, especially with her feelings out of whack as they were right now.

He looked up at her and scowled, to which Katara replied with a "Humph!" and marched on her way.

Sokka sighed, "I don't know what she's so scared about." He knows Katara, and he _knows_ that she isn't stupid. Whatever is spooking her about her feelings for Aang must be something that he just couldn't understand, at least at her level, since she was a girl and all.

And to be honest, Katara wasn't sure either. The more she thought about it, the more she kept coming back towards a brick wall. It was hard, trying to piece together her newfound feelings, but she wanted to at least try.

_It's not like it's a bad thing…_

If what Sokka was saying wasn't true, then (images of Aang flooded into her thoughts. His smile, his laughter, his grin, his happiness and his innocence...everything...she swore she felt the heat rising to her cheeks at that single moment) why?


End file.
